SSWH8 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the development of societies in Central and South America. a. Explain the rise and fall of the Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and Inca empires. b. Compare the culture of the Americas; include government, economy, religion, and the arts of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas. SSWH10 The impact of the age of discovery and expansion into the Americas, Africa, and Asia. a. Explain the roles of explorers and conquistadors; include Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Samuel de Champlain. b. Define the Columbian Exchange and its global economic and cultural impact. c. Explain the role of improved technology in European exploration; include the astrolabe. SSWH13 The student will examine the intellectual, political, social, and economic factor that changed the worldview of Europeans. a. Explain the scientific contributions of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton and how these ideas changed the European worldview. b. Identify the major ideas of the Enlightenment from the writings of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau and their relationship to politics and society.
At the bottom of the page draw three blocks that symbolize the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Draw arrows and show what was exchanged during the Triangle Trade.
The following Activities are a classroom activity that will be graded separately from the Progress Chart.
What were the percentages of those slaves that died during the Middle Passage?
Explain why European nations sent explorers westward and how overseas expansion led to the growth of commerce and the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Focus Question: Who were the major European explorers and how did overseas expansion lead to the growth of commerce?
Waldseemuller Map of 1507. First Map to Show the Americas as a New Continent
Waldseemuller Map of 1507. First Map to Show the Americas as a New Continent
Massachusetts_state_seal.png
See Grade 5.3 for more European encounters with native peoples during the Age of Exploration.
Essential Understandings:
One major reason that European explorers looked to the west was that the Ottoman Turks in 1453 C.E., blocked the Middle East trade route to Italy. Europeans had to find a new way to acquire goods such as silks and spices upon which they have become dependent.
Europe had turned inward following its confrontations with the Muslim world in the Crusades. Following the consolidation of monarchical power and discovery of riches in the East by overland explorers such as Marco Polo, there was growing impetus to expand and seek out new markets and trading partners. Portugal led the way, followed closely by Spain.
Not powerful enough to expand within Europe or confront the growing Ottoman Empire in the East, they sailed south on improved ships using new navigational tools. In search of "God, Glory and Gold" and a way around the Muslim stranglehold on the spice trade, they traveled further afield, eventually rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reaching the Far East. A series of fortresses were built along the West and East coasts of Africa, into India and the East Indies in order to facilitate trade.
All these ventures went under the guise of serving to rescue non-Christian souls from eternal damnation first and foremost, and though this was used as a justification for their expansion and conquests, many Europeans firmly convinced themselves that what they were doing was beneficial. Though written in 1899, Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden is a sarcastically written response to this 'justification' of Western nations imposing themselves on 'lesser races'.
Europeans began trading in captured African slaves almost immediately, mostly for use as domestic servants in Europe. In search of an alternate route to the lucrative East Indies trade, Columbus enlisted the sponsorship of the Spanish to chart a new course there by sailing west - inadvertently opening up the so called New World to a restless Europe in search of adventure and profit. Before too long the Spanish and Portuguese were forced to compete with the English, Dutch and French for the spoils, eventually ceding North America, India and most of the West Indies to these upstarts.
Why Europe? Why Then?
English Sailing Ship, 1575
English Sailing Ship, 1575
Improved navigation, shipbuilding, and weaponry
Advancements in shipbuilding and navigation allowed for easier passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Click here to learn more about these technologies.
Ferdinand Magellan in his voyage around the world which paved the way for the Portuguese Empire had an interesting and novel mission - learn more about ithere
Mercantilism
European governments at the time believed that a country's wealth was determined by the amount of capital within its borders. These governments sought new sources of gold to accumulate for themselves to increase their wealth. They believed the New World to be a source of gold.
Trades and manufacturing stimulate economic changes
Europeans question the church. Fewer emphases on after life, more on improving current material conditions
16th and 17th century Break-up of World Christendom
By the 18th century European States/centralized monarchs compete with rival monarchs to enhance power and wealth
Europeans have desire for new goods
After initial contact with the East, a European market quickly developed for goods from India, China, Indonesia (South East Asia) in overland trade through the Middle East. This market included goods such as spices, sugar, metals, dyes, jewels, ivory, leather, silk, perfumes, and carpets.
For a engaging history of exploration, see Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (W.W. Norton, 2006).
As Candice Millard noted in her review of the book ("Fantastic Voyages," The New York Times Book Review, December 6, 2006, p.51), the challenges of exploration were immense: Sailors had to go where no one had gone before, without the benefit of maps or modern navigational tools. "On land, explorers faced rugged mountains, polar wastelands and seemingly endless deserts." In New Mexico, Fernandez-Armesto quotes one traveler's account of "dunes where the glare was so fierce that his eyes roasted and seemed to burst from their sockets. The horses were blinded and stumbled helplessly. The men breathed fire and spat pitch."
Why did the explorers go forth under such difficult conditions? For some, it was for the "glamour of great deeds." But soon, exploration became a means for national power for countries.
China, the greatest power of the 15th century, turned inward; it had the natural resources needed to sustain its society. Western Europe, with fewer resources or economic opportunities, chose to explore and expand. The Atlantic, not the Pacific, became the "highway to the rest of the world."
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Test Question Which of the following was not a goal of the Spanish colonial system in the Americas in the 16th through 18th centuries?
A - accumulation of wealth by conquering native populations
B - expanding the influence of the Roman Catholic Church
C - educating native populations to govern Spanish cities in the Americas
D - advancing Spanish interests in the global climate of competition
ANSWER: C
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Cahokia
Artist's Reconstruction of Monk's Mound at Cahokia.
Artist's Reconstruction of Monk's Mound at Cahokia.
For a perspective on Native American history in the Americas prior to European encounters, see Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, Timothy R. Pauketat, Viking, 2009.
Cahokia, located in present-day Illinois, was the center of what anthropologists call "Mississippian culture," agricultural communities throughout the midwestern and southeastern United States between 1000 and 1400. It is now the largest archaeological site in the United States and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site has been designated a world heritage site.
It had a population in excess of 10,000, with at least twenty to thirty thousand more in outlying towns and farming settlements that for fifty miles in every direction (Pauketat, 2009, p. 2).
Located just east of present-day St. Louis, Missouri.
North America's largest pyramidal-mound complex. "Monks Mound is larger at its base than the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Egypt's largest" ("Cahokia: America's Forgotten City," National Geographic, January, 2011, p. 138). Mounds were destroyed by the builders of St. Louis before the Civil War.
Construction has been radiocarbon dated to about 1050. The centerpiece was the size of 35 football fields, the Grand Plaza, the largest public space ever created north of Mexico. At its center, a packed clay pyramid that would reach 100 feet high, surpassed only by the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan and the great pyramid at Cholula, in Mexico (Pauketat, 2009, p. 23).
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1492: An Ongoing Voyage The Library of Congress offers a wide-ranging view of European voyages to the New World.
Throughout the time of explorers in the history of the Americas, each came for different reasons and purposes. Explorers to the new world were from Spain, the Netherlands, England and France. Spanish explorers like Columbus, Balboa, Cortez, de Leon, de Soto, and Coronado became very famous. Others like Drake, Verrazano, Raleigh, Carter, Champlain, Cabot and Hudson are not as well known here as in South America. Each one of these explorers contributed to the formation of a new world.
Christopher Columbus was an experienced Italian sailor from the town of Genoa. Unable to convince the Italian rulers to sponsor his voyage to sail, he convinced the Spanish that he would be able to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a sea route to Asia. Spain's king Ferdinand and queen Isabella sponsored his first trip. He sailed for 33 days before his land spotted land, thinking they were in Asia.
external image Magellan-Map-En.png
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea captain. His goal was to sail west to Asia by way of what was known as the "Southern Ocean." He set out in 1519 with five ships from Spain. His voyage was able to circumnavigate the world, but, unfortunately for Magellan, he didn't make it.
Eventually the Spanish began to send their own explorers to the new world. Many of the explorers were actually military men called Conquistadors. They also brought priests from the Catholic church with them. Two such men were Bartolomu de Las Casas and Junipero Serra. The Spanish were also the first to place settlements in the new world.
Juan Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon was one of the Spanish Empire's most ambitious and successful explorers. His arrival on the coast of Florida in 1513 marked the beginning of permanent European contact with North America. Ponce, Puerto Rico, is named in Ponce de Leon's honor.
Portuguese In 1500 Pedro Cabral accidentally discovered the South America/Brazilian coast.
external image Essener_Feder_01.png
Amerigo Vespucci from Florence was on board and wrote home describing what he saw. A German geographer thus named the new world after him.
Spanish
Christopher Columbus
Columbus departing on a voyage. Colored engraving 16th century
Columbus departing on a voyage. Colored engraving 16th century
In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, Hispaniola (Haiti), and Cuba
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Read "The Columbus Letter," written by the explorer in 1493 in which he declared his successful voyage to the "islands of the India sea."
1493 Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and established permanent colony on Hispaniola
1498 Northern Coast of South America by Venezuela
1502 Coastline of Central America by Panama/Honduras
1513 Vasco Nunezde Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean
Christopher Columbus monument on Columbus Circle in front of Union Station. Author: Ad Meskens on Wikimedia Commons
Christopher Columbus monument on Columbus Circle in front of Union Station. Author: Ad Meskens on Wikimedia Commons
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Assessing Columbus, by 8th grade teacher Amy Trenkle uses the Columbus Memorial in Washington, D.C. provides a basis for a critical response to the Columbus holiday.
Focus Question: How did the European expansion lead to the development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?
Triangular trade between western Europe, Africa and America
Triangular trade between western Europe, Africa and America
African traditions of slavery/traffic in slaves for centuries before Portuguese sailed to Africa - not based on race and typically served in households
In the 16th century plantations in South America (Brazil) and the Caribbean growing sugar required workers
Native Indians were not able to do this hard work due to diseases
In 1518 the Spanish brought the first boatload of African Slaves directly to the New World
Africans were not susceptible to the ‘white man’s’ disease, most likely from years of Trans-Saharan trade they were able to build up immunity.
An estimated 11 million people were shipped to the Western Hemisphere
The 10 week journey is also referred to as the "Middle Passage”
Approximately 15 of every 25 people /slaves died on voyage
When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa in the 1430s they were interested in not slaves but gold. Ever since Mansa Musa, the king of Mali, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325 with 500 slaves and 100 camels (each carrying gold), the region had become synonymous with such wealth. There was one major problem: trade from sub-Saharan Africa was controlled by the Islamic Empire which stretched along Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the Sahara, which had existed for centuries, involved salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.
As the Portuguese extended their influence around the coast, Mauritania, Senagambia (by 1445) and Guinea, they created trading posts. Rather than becoming direct competitors to the Muslim merchants, the expanding market opportunities in Europe and the Mediterranean resulted in increased trade across the Sahara. In addition, the Portuguese merchants gained access to the interior via the Senegal and Gambia rivers which bisected long-standing trans-Saharan routes.
The Portuguese brought in copper ware, cloth, tools, wine and horses. (Trade goods soon included arms and ammunition.) In exchange, the Portuguese received gold transported from mines of the Akan deposits, pepper (a trade which lasted until Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498), and ivory.
There was a very small market for African slaves as domestic workers in Europe and as workers on the sugar plantations of the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Muslim merchants had an insatiable appetite for slaves that were used as porters on the trans-Saharan routes (with a high mortality rate) and sold in the Islamic Empire.
The Portuguese found Muslim merchants entrenched along the African coast as far as the Bight of Benin. The slave coast, as the Bight of Benin was known, was reached by the Portuguese at the start of the 1470s. It was not until they reached the Kongo coast in the 1480s that they outdistanced Muslim trading territory.
The first of the major European trading 'forts', Elmina, was founded on the Gold Coast in 1482. Elmina (originally known as Sao Jorge de Mina) was modeled on the Castello de Sao Jorge, the first of the Portuguese Royal residence in Lisbon. Elmina, which means "the mine," became a major trading center for slaves purchased along the slave rivers of Benin.
By the beginning of the colonial era there were forty such forts operating along the coast. Rather than being icons of colonial domination, the forts acted as trading posts - they rarely saw military action - the fortifications were important, however, when arms and ammunition were being stored prior to trade.
For centuries Europeans rendered sugars from beets and other local produce - a labor-intensive effort which yielded mediocre results. When explorers returned from what is Indonesia today with samples of sugarcane there was an instant market for this superior sweetener. Sugar cane must be grown in the tropics, requires good soils and a large, pliant labor force. The East Indies lacked the latter and was far removed from European markets. Africa had the needed workers but poor soils. The maritime powers thus began developing sugar plantations in South America and the Caribbean and importing African slaves to do the heavy lifting there. The demand for slaves in the New World was closely linked to the demand for sugar in the Old World.
Conditions for African men, women, and children who were captured and forced overseas were brutal every step of the way.
It is estimated that twelve million made the crossing of whom a little over ten million survived. This accounts for the largest forced movement of peoples in world history.
As many as 390 captives were shackled below decks in extremely cramped quarters for up to 70 days on the infamous "Middle Passage."
The Caribbean was known as the "graveyard for slaves" since so many died on the plantations there and had to be replaced by new imports. "Sugar slaves" suffered the highest mortality rates of workers held in bondage anywhere. It is estimated that 800,000 slaves were brought to the Caribbean of whom 300,000 remained.
Spain and Portugal dominated the slave trade in South America while the English and to a lesser extent the Dutch and French controlled most of the the trade in the Caribbean which passed some of its imported human cargo onto North America.
Demand for slave labor grew steadily in the north as tobacco, rice and, later, cotton came into widespread production there.
Slaves eventually came to account for 20% of the population of British North America, a substantial number but far less than proportions on many West Indian islands which have been totally transformed by African cultures.
external image Test_hq3x.png
TEST QUESTION During the most active years of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from the late 15th through the middle of the 19th century, the region that saw the highest number of slaves imported was:
Emerging Global World Unit 6
SSWH8 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the development of societies in Central and South America.
a. Explain the rise and fall of the Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and Inca empires.
b. Compare the culture of the Americas; include government, economy, religion, and the arts of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas.
SSWH10 The impact of the age of discovery and expansion into the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
a. Explain the roles of explorers and conquistadors; include Vasco da Gama,
Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Samuel de Champlain.
b. Define the Columbian Exchange and its global economic and cultural impact.
c. Explain the role of improved technology in European exploration; include the
astrolabe.
SSWH13 The student will examine the intellectual, political, social, and economic factor that changed the worldview of Europeans.
a. Explain the scientific contributions of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton and how these ideas changed the European worldview.
b. Identify the major ideas of the Enlightenment from the writings of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau and their relationship to politics and society.
Handouts
Progress Chart
Webquests
Flipchart
Triangle Trade Class Activity
1) Go to : Triangle Trade Interactive Map
Complete the Left-Side of the Journal Activity
At the bottom of the page draw three blocks that symbolize the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Draw arrows and show what was exchanged during the Triangle Trade.
The following Activities are a classroom activity that will be graded separately from the Progress Chart.
2) Then go to: History of Slavery in Gambia
3) Visit The African Cultural Center
4) Explore The Middle Passage
Explain why European nations sent explorers westward and how overseas expansion led to the growth of commerce and the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Focus Question: Who were the major European explorers and how did overseas expansion lead to the growth of commerce?
Click here for The Columbian Biological Exchange, a chart showing the exchanges produced by European encounters with the New World.
Essential Understandings:
One major reason that European explorers looked to the west was that the Ottoman Turks in 1453 C.E., blocked the Middle East trade route to Italy. Europeans had to find a new way to acquire goods such as silks and spices upon which they have become dependent.Europe had turned inward following its confrontations with the Muslim world in the Crusades. Following the consolidation of monarchical power and discovery of riches in the East by overland explorers such as Marco Polo, there was growing impetus to expand and seek out new markets and trading partners. Portugal led the way, followed closely by Spain.
Not powerful enough to expand within Europe or confront the growing Ottoman Empire in the East, they sailed south on improved ships using new navigational tools. In search of "God, Glory and Gold" and a way around the Muslim stranglehold on the spice trade, they traveled further afield, eventually rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reaching the Far East. A series of fortresses were built along the West and East coasts of Africa, into India and the East Indies in order to facilitate trade.
All these ventures went under the guise of serving to rescue non-Christian souls from eternal damnation first and foremost, and though this was used as a justification for their expansion and conquests, many Europeans firmly convinced themselves that what they were doing was beneficial. Though written in 1899, Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden is a sarcastically written response to this 'justification' of Western nations imposing themselves on 'lesser races'.
Europeans began trading in captured African slaves almost immediately, mostly for use as domestic servants in Europe. In search of an alternate route to the lucrative East Indies trade, Columbus enlisted the sponsorship of the Spanish to chart a new course there by sailing west - inadvertently opening up the so called New World to a restless Europe in search of adventure and profit. Before too long the Spanish and Portuguese were forced to compete with the English, Dutch and French for the spoils, eventually ceding North America, India and most of the West Indies to these upstarts.
Why Europe? Why Then?
- Improved navigation, shipbuilding, and weaponry
Advancements in shipbuilding and navigation allowed for easier passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Click here to learn more about these technologies.- Ferdinand Magellan in his voyage around the world which paved the way for the Portuguese Empire had an interesting and novel mission - learn more about ithere
- Mercantilism
European governments at the time believed that a country's wealth was determined by the amount of capital within its borders. These governments sought new sources of gold to accumulate for themselves to increase their wealth. They believed the New World to be a source of gold.- Trades and manufacturing stimulate economic changes
- Europeans question the church. Fewer emphases on after life, more on improving current material conditions
- 16th and 17th century Break-up of World Christendom
- By the 18th century European States/centralized monarchs compete with rival monarchs to enhance power and wealth
- Europeans have desire for new goods
After initial contact with the East, a European market quickly developed for goods from India, China, Indonesia (South East Asia) in overland trade through the Middle East. This market included goods such as spices, sugar, metals, dyes, jewels, ivory, leather, silk, perfumes, and carpets.Click here to read The Waldseemuller Map: Charting the New World from the Smithsonian Magazine and The Map That Named America from the Library of Congress.
For a engaging history of exploration, see Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (W.W. Norton, 2006).
Which of the following was not a goal of the Spanish colonial system in the Americas in the 16th through 18th centuries?
ANSWER: C
For a perspective on Native American history in the Americas prior to European encounters, see Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, Timothy R. Pauketat, Viking, 2009.
Early Explorers That Came to America
Throughout the time of explorers in the history of the Americas, each came for different reasons and purposes. Explorers to the new world were from Spain, the Netherlands, England and France. Spanish explorers like Columbus, Balboa, Cortez, de Leon, de Soto, and Coronado became very famous. Others like Drake, Verrazano, Raleigh, Carter, Champlain, Cabot and Hudson are not as well known here as in South America. Each one of these explorers contributed to the formation of a new world.
Christopher Columbus was an experienced Italian sailor from the town of Genoa. Unable to convince the Italian rulers to sponsor his voyage to sail, he convinced the Spanish that he would be able to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a sea route to Asia. Spain's king Ferdinand and queen Isabella sponsored his first trip. He sailed for 33 days before his land spotted land, thinking they were in Asia.
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea captain. His goal was to sail west to Asia by way of what was known as the "Southern Ocean." He set out in 1519 with five ships from Spain. His voyage was able to circumnavigate the world, but, unfortunately for Magellan, he didn't make it.
Eventually the Spanish began to send their own explorers to the new world. Many of the explorers were actually military men called Conquistadors. They also brought priests from the Catholic church with them. Two such men were Bartolomu de Las Casas and Junipero Serra. The Spanish were also the first to place settlements in the new world.
Juan Ponce de Leon was one of the Spanish Empire's most ambitious and successful explorers. His arrival on the coast of Florida in 1513 marked the beginning of permanent European contact with North America. Ponce, Puerto Rico, is named in Ponce de Leon's honor.
Portuguese
In 1500 Pedro Cabral accidentally discovered the South America/Brazilian coast.
Spanish
Christopher Columbus
In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, Hispaniola (Haiti), and Cuba
Trade goods that were brought back to Europe: gold, silver, dyes, cotton, vanilla, hides from livestock, cacoa, maize/corn, tobacco, manioc/cassava.
-These accounts describe the same massacre but from differing points of view, which highlights the biases present in many historical writings.
-Secrets of the Dead: a PBS special on the Aztec Massacre.
Focus Question: How did the European expansion lead to the development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?
When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa in the 1430s they were interested in not slaves but gold. Ever since Mansa Musa, the king of Mali, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325 with 500 slaves and 100 camels (each carrying gold), the region had become synonymous with such wealth. There was one major problem: trade from sub-Saharan Africa was controlled by the Islamic Empire which stretched along Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the Sahara, which had existed for centuries, involved salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.
As the Portuguese extended their influence around the coast, Mauritania, Senagambia (by 1445) and Guinea, they created trading posts. Rather than becoming direct competitors to the Muslim merchants, the expanding market opportunities in Europe and the Mediterranean resulted in increased trade across the Sahara. In addition, the Portuguese merchants gained access to the interior via the Senegal and Gambia rivers which bisected long-standing trans-Saharan routes.
The Portuguese brought in copper ware, cloth, tools, wine and horses. (Trade goods soon included arms and ammunition.) In exchange, the Portuguese received gold transported from mines of the Akan deposits, pepper (a trade which lasted until Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498), and ivory.
There was a very small market for African slaves as domestic workers in Europe and as workers on the sugar plantations of the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Muslim merchants had an insatiable appetite for slaves that were used as porters on the trans-Saharan routes (with a high mortality rate) and sold in the Islamic Empire.
The Portuguese found Muslim merchants entrenched along the African coast as far as the Bight of Benin. The slave coast, as the Bight of Benin was known, was reached by the Portuguese at the start of the 1470s. It was not until they reached the Kongo coast in the 1480s that they outdistanced Muslim trading territory.
The first of the major European trading 'forts', Elmina, was founded on the Gold Coast in 1482. Elmina (originally known as Sao Jorge de Mina) was modeled on the Castello de Sao Jorge, the first of the Portuguese Royal residence in Lisbon. Elmina, which means "the mine," became a major trading center for slaves purchased along the slave rivers of Benin.
By the beginning of the colonial era there were forty such forts operating along the coast. Rather than being icons of colonial domination, the forts acted as trading posts - they rarely saw military action - the fortifications were important, however, when arms and ammunition were being stored prior to trade.
For centuries Europeans rendered sugars from beets and other local produce - a labor-intensive effort which yielded mediocre results. When explorers returned from what is Indonesia today with samples of sugarcane there was an instant market for this superior sweetener. Sugar cane must be grown in the tropics, requires good soils and a large, pliant labor force. The East Indies lacked the latter and was far removed from European markets. Africa had the needed workers but poor soils. The maritime powers thus began developing sugar plantations in South America and the Caribbean and importing African slaves to do the heavy lifting there. The demand for slaves in the New World was closely linked to the demand for sugar in the Old World.
Conditions for African men, women, and children who were captured and forced overseas were brutal every step of the way.
During the most active years of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from the late 15th through the middle of the 19th century, the region that saw the highest number of slaves imported was:
ANSWER: C
1. Rum & goods to Africa
2. Slaves to the West Indies
3. Sugar to New England
www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/index/index.htlm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/triangular_trade
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_e3.htm
http://www.geocities.com/david_navis/amhis/Explorer/explorereading.html http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa101101a.htm